1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus capable of executing an installed application program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-156862 discusses a digital multifunction peripheral including a degeneration unit configured to invalidate, when some of its functions cannot be used due to a failure or the like, the functions, to operate the other functions that can be used. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-249814 discusses constructing another execution environment directed toward a built-in system, e.g., an execution environment such as Java (registered trademark) on a real-time operating system (OS) in an image processing apparatus or the like, and downloading an application program from outside and executing the downloaded application program.
The application programs to be downloaded and executed, as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-249814, include one having a function relating to security such as user authentication and one having an account function for counting use statuses of the image processing apparatus.
When a secondary storage function (e.g., a hard disk drive) in the image processing apparatus cannot be used, the downtime of the image processing apparatus is lengthened in a configuration in which an error screen is unconditionally displayed to call a service engineer, i.e., a configuration in which a user cannot use the image processing apparatus.
On the other hand, when the image processing apparatus continues to be used by invalidating the secondary storage function, as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-156862, functions of the downloaded application program cannot be used. If the application program provides a function relating to security such as a user authentication function, for example, it is not desirable for security reasons that the image processing apparatus can be used in a situation where the function is not validated.
If the application program provides the account function for counting use statuses of the image processing apparatus, for example, the image processing apparatus can be used in a situation where the function is not validated. Thus, the use statuses of the image processing apparatus cannot be correctly counted. When a function required to manage the image processing apparatus cannot be provided by performing a degeneration operation, therefore, the image processing apparatus may not correctly operate.